This year's university places for dc at private school - what's the reality been?

[Thedogisdrivingmemad]

I'm reading and hearing lots of anecdotal information suggesting it's got much tougher for private school pupils to get top university offers. Things like "hardly anyone at dd's [private] school got an offer for Durham this year".
If you have dc at private school who've just left year 13, how has it been for your dc and their friends?

Is that good to hear though if the school is very selective? So the pupil intake is pretty bright in the first place. So doesn't seem very fair to me unless I've missed something?

I'm assuming that the main criteria for Uni admission are (achieved) grades, entrance test results and/or interviews. Only then would a candidate's relative performance to their peers be considered, as an additional factor.

My niece was led up the garden path by her private school IMO. She got GCSE’s that were ‘surprisingly’ good and therefore decided to go for medicine. Got very high a level predictions so got accepted on well thought of course and then failed to get the grades by quite some way and has lost her place.
meanwhile friends with children at state schools seem to be finding their A levels results are higher than their GCSE’s/predictions might have led them to believe - and are delighted.

@Igglepigglesblankie grammar schools don’t get contextual offers!!!!

@Bougiebliss I was talking about "context" as opposed to contextual offers - i.e. you are compared to your school cohort.

As an aside, you can get a contextual offer if you go to a grammar school - there are other criteria (i.e. refugee, in care etc) that are applied regardless of your school.

@Igglepigglesblankie so why does your relative say they would do grammar next time? What do they wish was different about what they chose?

@bougiebliss to save all that money! Grammars provide the same high achieving context but at no cost.

@Igglepigglesblankie presumably the excellent local grammar you refer to isn't a super-selective grammar or the DC would be contextualised in pretty much the same way as they have been in their top London independent school.

Sorry X post. I see your point.

@opoponax it is just as selective so you are absolutely right!

@Bougiebliss there is definitely a tendency with some schools to over-egg A Level predictions but with medicine it is also true that there are approximately 40% of offer holders across different school types who miss their grades in a normal year. There is a lot to juggle when applying for medicine with sometimes two clinical entrance exams, significant volunteering requirements and work shadowing and up to four interviews with different formats to prepare for. There is a lot of pressure of competing demands on time.

But this was happening when I was applying to uni almost 20 years ago too. I got an Oxford offer, but rejected from Durham & Edinburgh. Same story for my sisters. Friend at selective all girls private school who had very similar grades to me & probably a better set of relevant extra curriculars didn't even get interviewed by Cambridge. One guy I knew from Winchester College, predicted 3 As, didn't get any offers and had to scramble through clearing. Could be the personal statement, could be pre-interview tests, could be that they are applying to very competitive courses and there is just no way for everyone to get an offer for every uni they meet the grade profile for.

perhaps the private schools (or parents) need to know that and put a real range of places down. I know a few who had no difference in two choices and then didn’t get the grades for either. Stressful.